Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: UTSA

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Army West Point football head coach Jeff Monken met with members of the local media on Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference inside Nowak Auditorium.

The Black Knights trek to San Antonio for a Saturday matchup with UTSA slated for 3:30 p.m. EST in the Alamodome. That contest will be carried live on NFL Network with Rhett Lewis, Max Starks and Molly Sullivan on the call.

Jeff Monken Army West Point Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening statement)
"It was an agonizing defeat as was said on the Wide World of Sports back when I was a kid. It was certainly close to being a thrilling victory. Our guys played really hard and played really well at particular times throughout the game. I thought our front seven on defense played really well to hold Michigan to two-and-a-half yards, I think it was less than that per carry. Trying to stop the run is where we really start in terms of our philosophy on defense. I was proud of those guys for that. They hit some plays and some plays that were needed down the stretch and in overtime. They have a really good defense. Coach (Don) Brown's an outstanding coach. There were some things that we did really well and put ourselves in position and let it slip through our fingers. It's disappointing. Our kids were very hurt as well as our staff. We all were, and it still stings. It's hard to swallow being that close to beating another top-10 team and falling short. But, gosh, I can't say enough about the belief that our guys had that they were going to win. We had, I thought, a great crowd among the 100 plus thousand there. There were a lot of Army fans and I heard it more after seeing the highlights and those kinds of things that came out on our website. You can hear the reaction and response when we had a good play. That is just a thrill for our kids to have that many people there to support us. The bottom line is, it's a loss and its disappointing. Now, we move on to a very important game against UTSA and to rebound when you have a disappointing loss is important so hopefully our guys will respond and have a great week of practice and get ourselves ready to play.

(Ref.: On UTSA)
"They have a very athletic football team. A very good football team. They started the program, I think less than 10 years ago. I think this may be their ninth season. For a new program, they've been remarkably successful. I was just looking at their home record and they've got a really good home record. Under the current coach they're 5-2 in the month of September, so they're successful at home early in the year. They've got a Power Five win under their belt under this coach. They're an athletic team. We've got a lot of guys from the state of Texas on our team. Coach (Frank) Wilson mentioned that in his press conference yesterday that we have 24 guys from the state of Texas and that's probably right. I don't know the exact number, but there's a lot of guys from down there and they're going to be playing against guys they played with or against in high school. We don't, as far as I know, have anybody on our team from the state of Texas that got offered a scholarship by UTSA. It's just another example of how well we're going to need to prepare and how hard we're going to need to play. They had a first-round draft pick a year ago who was the 14th pick in the NFL Draft, so they've got some real players."

(Ref.: On how the defense has looked)
"I think that John Loose and the staff are doing a really good job of getting our guys in positions to make plays. You watch the film and in the end zone shots, you can't see our guys on defense behind the blue and gold uniforms. I mean, those guys were huge. We're not going to outsize anybody or any of those things. Our guys are trying to do their very best to be in the position that they're supposed to be and to play well fundamentally. I think they're playing hard. So those are the things that work for us. Whether it's defense, offense, or special teams, we've got to do those things in order to be successful here. I think that the guys on defense have done a really good job with that, and we didn't hold them to no yards or no points, but to hold Michigan to 14 points in regulation is a pretty good day by the defense. I was really proud of their effort."

(Ref.: On what Elijah Riley means to the team)
"Elijah has become a really, really good player. Elijah is a player, in my mind, that could play a lot of places. I don't know if he'd start at Michigan, but they've got some of the most talented guys in the country. But I will tell you, I think he's a good enough football player to help their football team. They probably, after watching the film, would agree. He's a physical guy, he's got good speed and he's aggressive. He made one of the best football plays I've seen since I've been here on that sack fumble right after we fumbled the ball, and they picked it up and ran it in for a touchdown. Thank goodness they'd blown it dead. The very next play, John (Loose) called a blitz from the corner and he came off the edge and the back just barely got a little piece of him. That's something, that particular fundamental, we work on every week at practice. In a circuit, we do an eternal recircuit in pregame - that's one of the fundamentals that we work - and it's just fantastic to see that played out right there in that scenario. It was a terrific play to knock it out and then get on the ball and he had several really good plays in the game. I think he's a good player and he's meant a lot to our team, just in the last year and a half. Starting his junior year, he blossomed as a leader, a guy that our guys feed off of. I'm really glad he's on our football team."

Army West Point Athletics

Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: UTSA

Players Mentioned

Elijah Riley

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